Caledonian Sky Review

4.0 / 5.0
5 reviews

Don't trust Noble Caledonia

Review for Australia & New Zealand Cruise on Caledonian Sky
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mcwbooby
6-10 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jan 2020

We booked what was supposed to be a 15-day wildlife cruise around New Zealand, but because Noble Caledonia had failed to rid the ship's hull of biocontaminants, it failed New Zealand's inspection and was unable to sail until 6 days after the scheduled embarkation date. And instead of sailing around the South Island and its offshore islands, we got on the ship 6 days late in Auckland, and we completely missed out on what was for us the main (the only!) reason we booked this cruise, which was to see the southwest coast and and offshore islands (Stewart and Snares), with their endemic penguins and other wildlife. Instead of sailing the South Island, we got a bus tour (on a mediocre bus, I might add) of museums and urban gardens. When we finally were flown to the North Island (Auckland) 6 days later, we got a whirlwind 8-day cruise around the North Island, whose coastline is much less interesting than the South Island. Even the North Island cruise was a mess because we went everywhere on the wrong days, when things were either closed or unavailable to us. Although Noble Caledonia gave us a 25% refund of the cruise (and 0% of the air travel from the Eastern US), that did not come close to compensating us for losing the reason we book the trip -- namely the southwest coast of NZ and the offshore islands. Because were were not traveling from London, they wouldn't book our air tickets, and when they curtailed the cruise, they would not take responsibility for compensating us, (Eventually they gave us 10% of what we had paid for the air tickets.)

The cabin was adequate. The dining on the ship was good ( not remarkable compared to other cruise we have been on), but the meals at the hotels o the bus tour were poor, and service was very slow. Some passengers got food poisoning and could not even board the ship when it was available 6 days late. The only exceptional aspect of the cruise was the housekeeper for our cabin.

Cabin Review

Cabin was fine.

11 Helpful Votes
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